The present invention relates in general to wireless data services, and, more specifically, to enhancing a live camera scene on a mobile phone display by superimposing virtual objects for various purposes.
The multimedia and data capabilities of both wireless mobile devices (e.g., cell phones) and the service providers' telecommunications networks have been rapidly increasing. As the data handling and bandwidth capabilities of the networks have improved, the functionality available from the mobile devices has expanded to take advantage of the increased network capabilities.
One popular cell phone feature is an integrated camera for capturing still and/or video images. The captured scenes can be stored on the mobile device in an internal memory or using flash memory cards. In addition, many phones have the capability to remotely transmit the picture or video data to other cell phones or to a website or other network address, such as the Picture MailSM multimedia messaging service available from Sprint® Nextel®.
GPS-enabled cell phones are now also widely available. Such a phone includes an integrated GPS receiver which provides latitude/longitude coordinates at high accuracy. The coordinates can be shared within the network in order to provide a location-based service. The present invention exploits these capabilities to create a new type of data service having novel functions never before realized.